Family · Statewide · WA · August 20, 2026
Report Flags Laws That Sideline Parents on Gender, Health Care
A new report examined conflicts between parental authority and outside institutions, according to Deseret News. The report cites recurring scenarios: a doctor recommending treatment that parents believe is harmful or contrary to their faith; schools teaching sex education that parents want to handle at home; and state laws that limit parental knowledge in family disputes. The article specifically names Washington state law, which does not require authorities to notify parents that their runaway minor is in state care if the family conflict stemmed from a disagreement over the child's gender identity. The piece presents these as real, documented examples of tension between parental rights and the authority of medical providers, schools, and state child-welfare systems, without further detail on the report's full scope, authorship, or additional state examples beyond Washington.
Source: Deseret News
Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Scripture places the primary responsibility for raising children on parents, not the state or any institution: fathers and mothers are commanded to instruct their children in the ways of the Lord. When state law — as in Washington's example — deliberately withholds information from parents specifically because a family disagreed over a child's gender identity, government is not staying neutral; it is siding against parents on a question Scripture answers plainly regarding sex and identity. Christian parents should recognize that the fight over who has authority to raise a child is not abstract policy — it is a direct contest over whether biblical parental authority or secular gender ideology governs the next generation.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. — Ephesians 6:4
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From the book
Defense of the family begins with jurisdiction. We do not defend parental rights because we are conservative. We defend them because God established them. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 locates the primary responsibility: "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." That command is given to parents rather than to the priesthood or the king. The home is the primary school of virtue.
— Chapter 18, “The Jurisdictional Mandate”
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